Progressive overload.

What progressive overload is

Progressive overload means asking the body for a little more over time: more weight, more reps or more sets than it did before. The body adapts to what it is asked to do. Sessions that repeat the same weights for the same reps ask for nothing new, and nothing new happens.

For a skinny-fat body, this is the habit that builds the muscle that was missing.

Double progression and rep ranges

Perdura uses double progression. Every exercise has a rep range by type: compound lifts 6 to 10, isolation lifts 10 to 15 and high-rep isolation 12 to 20 by default. You can change them.

Pick a weight you can lift for the bottom of the range with good form. Each session, add reps until every set reaches the top of the range. Then add weight and start again at the bottom. Two things progress, reps first and then weight, which is where the name comes from.

The three verdicts

After each session Perdura reads the sets of every lift against its range and gives one instruction for next time.

• Add weight. Every set reached the top of the range.
• Add reps. You are inside the range. Beat last time.
• Reduce load. A set fell below the bottom of the range. Drop the weight and rebuild.

The verdict comes from your most recent session of that lift only, and a set with no reps logged does not count. It shows on the Progression table and, at the gym, above each lift next to last time's numbers and today's target.

Estimated 1RM and the strength index

Each set also gives an estimated one-rep max using the Epley formula: weight times one plus reps over thirty. Bodyweight lifts progress on reps instead.

The strength index takes your benchmark lifts, indexes each to 100 at its first logged session and averages them, so one number says how much stronger you are than when you started. Your goal sets the target the index aims for. The index is on your dashboard on every plan; the chart over time comes with Premium.

Logging it

Training logs are free. The session sheet prefills every set from your last session of the routine. The set-by-set screen is made for a phone in the gym: one exercise at a time, last time and today's target, large plus and minus buttons, a rest timer, and a summary when you finish.

Start it from your dashboard with Start workout, or from the Training page.